How to create the perfect online password... with a little help from an ABBA song lyric

Logging on to computers at work, internet banking, email accounts and countless other online systems means plenty of demand for increasingly tricky passwords - so how can you devise one both safe, and memorable?

With so many of the daily functions that we used to handle face-to-face or over the telephone now being conducted online, we are ignoring traditional advice about password safety.

Despite being told not to, many people use family information and easily identifiable places in passwords. So what can you do instead?

Money, money, money: A lyric from a song could deliver your password

It seems, a memorable word is no longer seen as sufficient, as systems often require letters, numbers and capitals to feature in your password.

The result is that we use the same password, or a variation, across all of our online log-ins.

And when one is compromised it means that all of them need to be changed.

But experts say there are ingenious ways to make up, and remember, passwords without ignoring the traditional advice of never writing passwords down and of using a different one for each account.

They say that while the strongest passwords are a mixture of letters, numbers and characters, these passwords are also the hardest to remember.

One technique is therefore to use a memorable phrase, such as a song lyric, or a line from a film, that in some way relates to the website you’re using.

For example, for your online banking you could use a song such as Money, Money, Money by Abba. Choose a lyric, such as 'It’s a rich man’s world' and take the first letters of each word.

Your password becomes IARMW.

HOW TO CHOOSE A SECURE PASSWORD

Make sure you password protect ALL technology including your mobile phone and tablets, as well as your computer.

Choose a password with a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and keyboard symbols.

Choose a password containing at least eight characters- longer passwords are harder for criminals to guess or break.

Avoid using obvious passwords such
as names or birthdays of people close to you or numerical passcodes or
PINs that use ascending or descending number.

Don’t recycle passwords (for example password2, password3

You can also assign each site a number, perhaps based on which order you look at them in the morning. If you open your emails first, give it the number 1, online banking second, give it number 2 and so on.

Then add this number to the start or end of your password. In our example your online banking password becomes IARMW2.

If you don’t want to write your passwords down, instead write the name of the site and the corresponding number in a document.

Instead of numbers, you could use the first letter of the site you’re using at the start, end or even middle of your password. Banking could be a B, Facebook could be an F, and so on.

You could also use both numbers and letters. In our example this would become BIARMW2.’

Tony Neate, from getsafeonline.org, a part-state-backed service promoting online safety, said: 'If you are going to write them down then don't make it obvious what they're for. You could use a code as a way of disguising them - but don't make it so hard that you can't remember the code!'.

'Another option is to put them in a password vault - these are websites or programmes which protect your passwords with just one master password.

'Although, if you compromise the master password the fraudster would have access to all of them, so make sure you change it on a regular basis.'

Don't get hooked in a 'phishing' scam

If a widely-used website has been targeted successfully by hackers then you will probably see it in the news. This means that fraudsters will have also seen it and they will use this opportunity to target customers with fake emails.

These so-called 'phishing' emails will appear to be a genuine request from the company in question, but in-fact is from a fraudster, asking for you to reset or confirm your log-in details.

Never reply to emails asking for log-in, personal or financial information and be wary of emails asking for this information.

HOW TO LOOK AFTER YOUR PASSWORD

Never disclose your passwords to anyone else, if you think that someone else knows your password, change it immediately

Don't enter your password when others can see what you are typing

Change your passwords regularly

Use a different password for every
website, if you have only one password, a criminal simply has to break
it to gain access to everything

If you must write passwords down in
order to remember them, make sure they are meaningless and unusable to
other people by writing them in code

Do not send your password by email,
no reputable firm will ask you to do this so alarm bells should
automatically ring if you are asked

Some email providers, such as g-mail, allow you to set up '2-step authentication' so that if you try to access your account from a new computer or device it will ask for a code.

The code will be sent to your mobile - so that only you can access your email account.